Ben's Road to Recovery

Many of you will already know what has happened to Ben Mount aka Ben Verse over the last few months, but for those that don’t, here’s a brief summary:

Starting in August with a bad cough, he ended up in the local hospital coughing blood

with suspected TB.

It wasn’t TB but a superbug called pseudomonas aeruginosa: a rapidly-growing, antibiotic evasive/resistant bacteria forming an abscess in one of his lungs.

Things got a lot worse and at the start of September, Ben was rushed to the main hospital in Palma and put in an induced coma.

The situation got worse and for 6 weeks there were times that nothing was working, as the

bacteria mutated faster than the lab could identify the changes.

The doctors tried a continuously evolving combination of antibiotics; he was the first person in Spain to use a specialised rotating bed; doctors around the world were investigating his case.

We were told on a couple of occasions that it was doubtful he would survive…each day brought a new calamity/issue: sepsis, bleeding, haematoma, a heart attack, another procedure, another tube…

Miraculously, Ben came out of ICU fighting, determined to get better.

However, 3 weeks after being taken out of intensive care he was diagnosed with acute monoblastic leukemia (AML-M5a), resulting in immediate need for chemotherapy in various forms.

Finally, after over 4 months in hospital it looks like Ben will soon be able to return home. However, he has lost half his body weight.. still has the abscess with the use of only one lung, can't yet walk and is currently on his second round of chemotherapy.

The road to rehabilitation will be a long one and Ben will need a lot of care and support to bring him back to the person we all know and love. Bella has been holding the fort with their two beautiful daughters (2 and 10 months!)...

We have set up this fund to help Ben’s family with the costs of a range of everyday and extraordinary financial costs including nursing care, childcare, and mobility solutions. The list goes on and on…

Please consider giving what you can.

One of the things that has kept Ben going is the support of his family and friends around the world. When he first got his phone back after being out for over 2 months, he was blown away by the number of messages, well wishes, and love.

He has been writing some music since coming out of the coma for everyone to have access to, but it will need finishing, mastering etc etc. Ben doesn’t want it to be a charity, but right now we need to reach out to everyone that knows him and wants to help at this extremely difficult and stressful time.

Many thanks,

Jeremy (Ben's brother)